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The World of DebateTue, 03 Mar 2015 10:58:22 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2The West should get out of bed with the House of Saudhttp://www.intelligencesquared.com/events/the-west-should-get-out-of-bed-with-the-house-of-saud/
http://www.intelligencesquared.com/events/the-west-should-get-out-of-bed-with-the-house-of-saud/#commentsThu, 26 Feb 2015 10:48:22 +0000Eventshttp://www.intelligencesquared.com/?p=17253

This debate will be filmed for later broadcast on BBC World News.

Have we no morals? The outrage at the lowering of flags to mark the recent death of Saudi King Abdullah showed how at odds public opinion is with public policy towards Saudi Arabia. We know that the Saudis created the monster that is Islamic terrorism, allegedly spending some $100 billion on exporting fanatical Wahhabism to other Muslim nations around the world. We know that the violent ideology of Isis has its roots in Saudi Arabia. We know about the public beheadings and floggings, and the treatment of women that amounts to gender apartheid. Yet Western governments persist in cosying up to the Saudi royal family, making an ally of one of the most reactionary regimes in the world, so that we can sell them our expensive weaponry. Enough: now that cheap oil has made us less dependent on Saudi reserves, we should stop turning a blind eye and start treating Saudi Arabia with the condemnation it deserves.

That’s the liberal, reformist position. But others would maintain that even if we find many of its practices abhorrent, it is of vital interest to the West to stay in bed with the Saudi kingdom. After all, it is one of our most important allies amongst the Arab states, helping curb Iran’s ambitions for supremacy within the Middle East. It has also joined the coalition against the horrifyingly brutal Islamic State, sending warplanes to strike targets in Syria and training moderate Syrian rebels to fight the extremists. The Saudis have also donated $500 million to UN humanitarian efforts in Iraq. These are policies we should support. Hold your nose if you must, but the West should keep in with the House of Saud.

This debate has now ended. The full video will be available on this page soon.

Lock them up. That’s the way we’ve always dealt with offenders. Criminals deserve to be put away for their crimes. Prison works because it keeps those criminals out of circulation, and acts as society’s most effective deterrent. Our prisons may be more crowded than ever – the prison population of England and Wales, for example, has more than doubled in 20 years – but our crime rate has steadily fallen: proof, proponents of prison would argue, that incarceration works. Rehabilitation is all well and good – but the fundamental purpose of prison is to protect the public, and to punish those who have done wrong.

That’s the argument of the bang ’em up brigade; but others say that there’s a better way. New prison models have emerged in several European countries that suggest it’s not incarceration alone that prisoners need – it’s treatment for drug, alcohol, social and mental health issues. Norway, for example, has a ratio of almost one prison worker per inmate to help them overcome these problems. This system isn’t simply humane, say its advocates, it’s good for society. Just look at the statistics. In England and Wales, more than half the inmates suffer from personality disorders that our prison system doesn’t have the resources to address. Not surprisingly, 47% of inmates reoffend within a year of leaving prison. In Norway, by contrast, only 20% do. Its prison system works because it treats inmates as human beings, not criminals. Isn’t it time that we did the same?

Thomas Piketty’s book Capital in the 21st Century was the surprise publishing sensation of 2014. An analysis of the causes and growth of inequality, it has sold nearly half a million copies worldwide to date. It was described by many reviewers as the economic book not just of the year, but of recent decades.

How is it that a young, largely unknown French economist stirred up such a massive worldwide debate on inequality, a topic that Nobel Prize-winning economists such as Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman have been writing about for most of their careers? The answer lies in Piketty’s main argument, backed up by his extensive research, which states that capital – whether invested in the stock market or property – will always grow faster than income. As a result, he argues, people who are already rich will carry on getting richer, while those who depend on income will never catch up. Piketty’s solution? A global redistribution of wealth that would give poorer earners some capital to invest.

In this rare appearance in London, Piketty will appear centre stage for Intelligence Squared, along with a panel of experts – some supporters, some critics – to debate his findings. Do the alleged inaccuracies found in Piketty’s historical data affect the premise of his book? Is he right to predict that inequality will continue to rise during the 21st century? Is the allegedly growing wealth gap a threat to democracy? And what should we make of his proposal for a global tax on wealth?

Praise for Thomas Piketty

‘French economist Thomas Piketty has written an extraordinarily important book. Open-minded readers will surely find themselves unable to ignore the evidence and arguments he has brought to bear.’

– Martin Wolf, Financial Times

‘Thomas Piketty is the rock star economist on a mission to redistribute wealth.’

Among wine lovers, there is no greater divide than that between Burgundy and Bordeaux. These are the world’s most celebrated wine regions, different places producing different styles of wine. What separates them and why the great rivalry?

Many wine buffs believe that Bordeaux is for beginners. It’s a wine that you enjoy before your palate has fully matured and you then move on to the more exquisite pleasures of Burgundy. Bordeaux, say its detractors, is cerebral, like algebra, and is dignified at best. Burgundy, on the other hand, is a wine that makes you dream. As Roald Dahl once wrote, “To drink a Romanée-Conti is like having an orgasm in the mouth and nose at the same time”.

But others disagree. The best red Burgundy is made only from the pinot noir grape and some would argue that there’s not that much going on with it. Bordeaux, its aficionados like to point out, is almost always a blend of grapes that include cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, malbec and petit verdot. It’s a construct, it has detail, you feel more deeply engaged.

And then there’s the business of place – and indeed the business of business. Bordeaux has historically been affluent and attractive to outsiders. In recent times it has become increasingly corporatised and preoccupied with hiking up prices. Burgundy, on the other hand, has always been insular, composed almost entirely of small, family-run farms where the owners roll up their sleeves, get out into the vineyards and make the wines themselves. Why, say Burgundy lovers, would you want to drink a Bordeaux label owned by a man in a Brioni suit, when you could have the romance and authenticity of a wine made by a boot-clad farmer whose family have worked the same plot for generations? But is the ‘soul’ of a wine really so important? Much Bordeaux may nowadays be industrially produced by big business, but isn’t what counts the quality of the wine that comes out of the bottle?

On March 23rd Intelligence Squared bring together Britain’s two giants of wine writing, Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson, to go head to head in a debate on the world’s two greatest wines. Every audience member will be given a glass of each wine to help them decide which of the two should win the crown.

Come and engage your senses as well as your mind at the oenophile’s debate of the year.

With thanks to Honest Grapes for their generous support for this event

‘Making money is a happiness. And that’s a great incentive. Making other people happy is a super-happiness.’

These are the words of Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Bangladeshi economist world-famous for starting the microfinance movement. That movement is just part of Yunus’s mission to ‘put poverty in the museums’. A charismatic visionary, as much at ease with global leaders as he is with the poorest of street beggars, Professor Yunus believes every person can play a part in reducing poverty. And they can do this not by writing out a cheque to a charity or through hard-headed capitalism, but by means of a model that lies somewhere between the two. He calls this model social business.

As Professor Yunus likes to explain it, social business isn’t just about helping the poor – it can also help to change us. When we put on ‘social business glasses’ we start looking at the world and thinking about it in new ways. We bring fresh insight to our conventional profit-maximising companies and become more multi-dimensional, happier human beings in the process.

So what is a social business? It is one whose owners are motivated to solve a social problem such as unemployment. The difference between this and the more familiar social enterprise model is that the owners of a social business do not make money for themselves. Profits are ploughed back into the company instead of being paid out as dividends. And unlike a charity or NGO which has to rely on donations to keep running, a social business is profit-making and therefore financially sustainable.

Scale for Professor Yunus is all-important. In Colombia, for example, Yunus Social Business (YSB) financed a social business that has created a network of healthcare providers who offer 10,000 users, including the poorest of the poor, access to affordable and prompt healthcare. In Haiti, in order to address the spread of infectious diseases YSB set up a business to commercialize locally produced disinfectant. Now there are 100 points of sale that give 500,000 Haitians access to cleaning products at one-third of the usual market cost.

Since 2011, Yunus Social Business has supported 20 social businesses in seven different countries, mentored over 200 entrepreneurs and impacted over 10,000 customers.

Join us on March 4th to hear one of the most inspiring campaigners and achievers of our times, and learn how you too can become part of this movement.

]]>http://www.intelligencesquared.com/events/muhammad-yunus-on-a-new-kind-of-capitalism/feed/0Money can grow on trees: what’s good for nature is good for businesshttp://www.intelligencesquared.com/events/money-can-grow-on-trees/
http://www.intelligencesquared.com/events/money-can-grow-on-trees/#commentsMon, 09 Feb 2015 11:21:47 +0000Eventshttp://www.intelligencesquared.com/?p=16790VIDEO

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Capitalists don’t care about the environment. Industry, agriculture and commerce have long exploited nature’s resources. The pursuit of profit pays scant regard to the underlying cost of using up the planet’s capital.

That’s the familiar story that we hear about capitalists. But a growing number of voices are claiming that big business and nature in fact make perfect partners.

Harnessing the processes of nature, they argue, is simply good business sense. Forests, for example, perform carbon capture worth £2.3 trillion a year. Nature not only does this for free, it executes it with greater efficiency than any supply-chain manager could dream of. A Texan chemical plant, for instance, recently discovered that it could keep its ground ozone levels down by planting a forest nearby, for the same cost as erecting a new smokestack scrubber which would have done the same job.

This is simply one example of how business can thrive through collaboration with nature. But the question is, can such solutions be developed on a mass scale? Or is this vision of business and nature working hand in hand across the globe just a case of wishful green thinking?

Intelligence Squared, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, brought together some of the world’s leading conservation experts, along with voices from the worlds of finance and industry, to ask whether working in tandem with nature is the soundest investment that business can make.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends. The Conservancy and its more than 1 million members have protected nearly 120 million acres worldwide.

]]>http://www.intelligencesquared.com/events/money-can-grow-on-trees/feed/0Be afraid, be very afraid: the robots are coming and they will destroy our livelihoodshttp://www.intelligencesquared.com/events/the-robots-are-coming-and-they-will-destroy-our-livelihoods/
http://www.intelligencesquared.com/events/the-robots-are-coming-and-they-will-destroy-our-livelihoods/#commentsFri, 30 Jan 2015 12:55:40 +0000Eventshttp://www.intelligencesquared.com/?p=16747

This debate was filmed for broadcast on BBC World News. Broadcast dates and times will be available here soon, along with the video and podcast of the debate.

They are coming to an office near you: job-gobbling robots that can do your work better and more cheaply than you can. One in three jobs could be taken over by a computer or a robot in the next 20 years. Most at risk are less skilled workers such as machine operators, postmen, care workers and professional drivers. The CEO of Uber, the ride-sharing company, recently said that his goal is to replace all the firm’s drivers with autonomous cars.

But it’s not just blue-collar workers who are under threat. The relentless drive to replace expensive humans with artificial intelligence poses a threat to better paid jobs too. People whose work requires uniquely human skills, such as teachers, priests, and social workers, are likely to be safe. But already in law firms, junior lawyers are being replaced by software that can scan reams of documents in search of evidence; and in hospitals the role of pharmacists is being taken over by drug-dispensing robots. What’s worse, the people gaining from all this disruption are those already rich enough to own the technology and algorithms. Many experts are warning of a ‘winner takes all’ world of billionaires and beggars which will lead to increasing social unrest.

That’s the view of the tech pessimists, but others would argue that all this automation anxiety is overblown. While advances in technology have always caused disruption, in the long run they have led to the creation of more jobs. To give an example, in the 19th century the industrial revolution wiped out jobs on the land as farm workers were replaced by machinery, but millions found new work in factories as they sprang up in the cities. Why should things be different with the AI revolution? The vastly reduced costs to business, say the optimists, will create a boom that will ultimately lead to millions of new jobs — jobs that we can’t even envisage yet. For many the release from the daily drudgery of work will lead to new and more fulfilling means of employment. And for knowledge workers such as scientists and doctors, AI will enhance their expertise, not replace it. There will always be a premium paid for human ingenuity and insight, and these are the very qualities that will ensure we will prosper from this latest development in human history.

Join us on March 2nd and hear our experts go head to head on one of the most pressing issues of our time.

VIDEO

Coming soon.

Information

June 2015 will see the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, the ‘Great Charter’ which was signed at Runnymede by King John to resolve a political crisis he faced with his barons. Buried within its 69 clauses is one of immeasurable importance. This is the idea that no one should be deprived of their freedom without just cause, and that people are entitled to fair trial by their peers according to the law of the land.

At the time Magna Carta did nothing to improve the lot of the vast majority of English people, and all but three of its provisions have been repealed. Yet Magna Carta has come to be seen as the cornerstone of English liberty and an international rallying cry against the arbitrary use of power. It was invoked by opponents of Charles I’s overbearing rule in the 17th century and embodied in the 1791 Bill of Rights in America, where it is still held to have special constitutional status.

Where does Magna Carta stand today? In a time of secret courts in Britain and the Guantanamo gulag, the threat to rights from terror laws and state surveillance of our online activities, do we need to reaffirm its basic principles? Should we take things even further, as Tim Berners-Lee has suggested, and create a new Magna Carta for the worldwide web to protect our liberty online?

These are some of the dozens of events Intelligence Squared staged in 2014 which sold out weeks in advance. Right now we’re busy planning another sensational spring season for 2015, which will include events with design genius Thomas Heatherwick, ‘rockstar’ economist Thomas Piketty, debates on prison and on the threat to jobs from artificial intelligence, and much more. So if you’re stumped for a Christmas present for someone who loves politics and the arts, enjoys brilliant oratory and being intellectually stimulated by the world’s greatest minds, then why not consider the Intelligence Squared Gift Box?

£230 (+ P&P within the UK)*

* Please contact us in advance of purchasing if you would like your Giftbox delivered to a location outside the UK. Order by Thursday 18th December for delivery before Christmas.

Spring 2015 events

June 2015 will see the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, the ‘Great Charter’ which was signed by King John to resolve a political crisis he faced with his barons. Join us on 5th February 2015 as we host an evening dedicated to the history, the reinvention and the enduring significance of this historic document.
*Tickets for this event are now only available for Members and Gift Box holders.

Intelligence Squared, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, is bringing together some of the world’s leading conservation experts, along with voices from the worlds of finance and industry, to ask whether working in tandem with nature is the soundest investment that business can make.

Is the purpose of prison to keep criminals out of circulation and deter others from crime? Or is a more humane incarceration system a better way of protecting society? Come and listen to our speakers battle it out on February 10th, to make up your own mind.

Thomas Heatherwick has been heralded as one of Britain’s most original creative talents. He is the founder of the Heatherwick Studio which has brought design, architecture and engineering, along with a dash of sculpture and urban planning, all under the roof of a single practice, and won a global reputation for transformation, experimentation and surprise.

One in three jobs could be taken over by a computer or a robot in the next 20 years, but would this mean mass unemployment or would it release millions of people from the daily drudgery of work, leading them to a new and more fulfilling means of employment?

A charismatic visionary, as much at ease with global leaders as he is with the poorest of street beggars, Professor Yunus believes every person can play a part in reducing poverty. And they can do this not by writing out a cheque to a charity or through hard-headed capitalism, but by means of a model that lies somewhere between the two. He calls this model social business.

Intelligence Squared are bringing together Britain’s two giants of wine writing, Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson, to go head to head in a debate on the world’s two greatest wines. Every audience member will be given a glass of each wine, chosen by Hugh and Jancis, to help them decide which should win.

In this rare appearance in London, Thomas Piketty will appear centre stage for Intelligence Squared, along with a panel of experts – some supporters, some critics – to debate the themes discussed in his book ‘Capital in the 21st Century’, the surprise publishing sensation of 2014.